Psychological and Psychophysiological Stress Disorders

Psychological and Psychophysiological Stress Disorders

Respond to the following:

1. Stress can be the root cause of psychological disorders. Name four symptoms shared by acute and posttraumatic stress disorders.
You could experience any one of these if not more than one; Re-experiencing the Event, Avoidance and Emotional Numbing, Hypervigilance, irritability or sleep problems, Alienation, depression and physical symptoms (headache, stomachache)

2. What life events are most likely to trigger a stress disorder?
Personally I do not feel that it could be just one thing. A trigger could be anything from a smell, to someone’s voice, a song on the radio, any event could trigger a stress disorder. However, the most common would be Combat, Disasters and Abuse and Victimization.

3. Traumatic events do not always result in a diagnosable psychological disorder. What factors determine how a person may be affected by one such event?
There are biological and genetic factors, personality, childhood experiences, social support and the severity of trauma.

4. What is the link between personality styles and heart disease? the link between personality styles and heart disease are based on two basic personality types, type A and type B. Type A personalities tend to be more aggressive, angry more often, very driven, and impatient. Studies show a correlation between coronary heart disease and type A personalities. While Type B personalities are laid back and less stressed about the rushes of life. However those that fall in between these two types depending on the rate of stress will increase the chances of developing heart disease.

5. List and briefly describe four psychological treatments for physical disorders.

Relaxation Training which will reduce a person’s feelings of anxiety, and can also relax their muscles with the combination of prescribed medication.
Meditation is help relieve physical distress. It also will attempt to change the person’s state of consciousness while allowing them to ignore high stressors temporarily.
Cognitive intervention allows one to view their condition in a new prospective.
Biofeedback gives feedback from those who are connected to certain machinery which continually gives back readings about their involuntary body activities.